I will admit that, at first blush, Twitter seems to be nothing more than a silly waste of time. Based on the massive traffic that Twitter is gaining there has to be much more to it than just Tweeting your current actions or thoughts for your “followers” to see.Plenty has been written on the subject of Twitter so I won’t bore you with regurgitated Twitter droppings.

I will throw some interesting Twitter facts your way though…

• Jeremy Owyang a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research for Social Computing says: “Google Analytics indicates this is one of the largest referrers of traffic.” He uses Twitter to push people to his blog & interact with the webmaster community directly.

• With an Alexa traffic rank of 639 (as of 1/13/2008) there is no doubt that your community is probably tweeting so you need to become a twit and join in the top-of-mind conversation that is going on there.

• Twitter is becoming the place to learn about what leaders in your industry are doing before you ever see it on their website or blog (if they post such things).

• Be the first to know of new content released in your niche.

• By following your leaders you will often gain links to some awesome free content that you may have never found on your own.

• Be the first to blog or write about new content that you discover through Twitter.

• Use Twitter to gain insight into products or services that you could create.

Twitter is a great way to keep your ear to the rail about what your market is doing and what they are interested in. Use Twitter for market research. Use Twitter for ideas. Use Twitter to market your new content… Use your imagination.

Twitter is a way to find what IS relevant to your audience and make “on time” recommendations…

Founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of MediaTrust, Inc. Peter Bordes said:

“2008 is the beginning of the “age of relevance” and recommendations. As users, media and advertising move from searching to finding a more meaningful and intelligent way to dynamically & seamlessly connect. Relevance is the key as media becomes even more highly fragmented, and users empowered to be in control of what & how they are consuming…”

It may be interesting to note that Peter Bordes and his entourage contacted one of my consulting clients, NetAudioAds, through a strong social marketing push that I started for the Pay-Per-Play Media Opportunity. Long story short, MediaTrust is now one of our biggest partners in that business venture and it all started through the elegant jitterings of a social movement started through Facebook which has led to people Tweeting about Pay-Per-Play.

I know that fact is a bit off topic for Twitter and I really don’t think “jitterings” is a word but the fact remains… News travels fast through Twitter and if you’re a twit then you will be one of the first to know about it.

If you want to learn how to use Twitter then I have written a HOW TO over at SEO20/20: How to Use Twitter. The biggest obstacle to making a successful run on Twitter is to gain followers so I have covered it in the tutorial.

I have only recently started using Twitter and I have gained a few blog subscribers as a result… I am getting 4.36% of my traffic to this blog from Twitter right now… I expect that number to increase as I gain more followers trough Twitter.

How do you use Twitter and what successes have you seen with it?